July 2, 2003: Origins 2003

This was my first visit to the Columbus incarnation of Origins. It went pretty well! The convention center (which I'd seen before, at a MarCon) is a good facility. There were definitely over 10,000 people there; I don't have an official number. Most things went pretty smoothly. We'll not dwell on my Guest of Honor speech, which was listed as "sold out," and had no location given in the program book, but I really enjoyed talking to the eight people who managed to find it anyway.

Other things went better. The Pirate Game ran better than expected as four game sessions of only two hours each. (All thanks to those who helped me, especially Robin McNeil, who was there from setup to breakdown and had good ideas for making it run more smoothly.) The room was the best I've ever had for the game, the wireless microphone was useful, and 30 players at once makes for one heck of a pirate melee.

Frag was fun in 3-D. We were doing a "Frag Evil Stevie" scenario in which I was a giant lizard-thing with acid immunity and very good stats. I died anyway, but only once.

And I got to see a lot of old friends. All told, it was a good weekend, and I made it back here with all my hit points.-- Steve Jackson